Seven sins and a cardinal error

THE Seven Deadly Sins! God be with the days when people in Holy Catholic Ireland stayed up all night worrying if they had committed one or more of them in the course of their daily — or nightly — lives.

Priests, and particularly missionaries, thundered from the pulpit about the need to avoid these grave offences to God and the Church, and advised the flock to examine its collective conscience to see if the Devil had managed to tempt the faithful into savouring these sinful delights.

Where are the Seven Deadlies now? In Ireland, at least, they have the honour or dishonour of serving as the names of a selection of choc ices on TV's Magnum ad.